The feast of Mount Carmel is one that means much to me personally, with many fond memories in my childhood and adulthood where Our Lady of Mount Carmel has always been magnificently present.
To begin with, when I was a child I used to go to the fields of my late uncle Felix at Santa Venera in my native Malta. In those days the Carmelite friars had a beautiful old Church as well as a friary. I remember going to that magnificent Church for the Feast of Our Lady of Carmel. Also I would still remember the beautiful stories my uncle used to tell me of some friars he knew personally well. My cousin Joe, till this very day, at the feast of Our Lady of Carmel at the new Church at Santa Venera, carries the statue with seven other men.
Back in my hometown at San Ġwann, Malta, I had the grace of having another beautiful connection with the Carmelite friars at Balluta, Sliema. Since I was a boy I was always fascinated both by the beautiful Gothic Church the Carmelites built there as well as the magnificent statue they have which was brought over from Valletta. This extraordinary statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel has a long history. In his article The statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel made in 1780 in Naples in the daily Malta Independent of 22 August 2016, Fr Hermann Ducan O.Carm gives us a very intriguing and detailed account of this most devout statue. He writes:
The Maltese islands boast a number of beautiful statues sculpted by both Maltese and foreign artists. One of these prestigious works of art is the statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel venerated in the Balluta Parish church in St Julian’s. According to historical documents, from the notary archives of Francesco Bovio, on 5 November 1779, an agreement was reached in Naples between Mr. Guido Pasquale on behalf of the Carmelite fraternity of Valletta and the sculptor Gennaro Reale. The agreement was to make a statue 6 and three quarter feet high with a base of half a foot high, by the end of March 1780. The statue was to be made with a high degree of likeness to the clay model presented by the same sculptor. Furthermore the agreement was that the statue be painted in accordance with the rules. The price for this statue was set to be 70 Neapolitan Ducats and all the work on the statue was to be overseen by Professor Carlo Mondicello.
It is worth noting that a General Council meeting was held for the Carmelite fraternity in their oratory in Valletta on the 19th of March 1780 where the agreement was approved.
At the time in Valletta, there was another statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel which was not venerated anymore, and thus it was agreed to use the pedestal of this statue for the new statue. The prime-carpenter Mr.Eugenio Borg undertook the wood work of the pedestal. In addition the Carmelites paid Captain Mr. Giacomo Burlo Corribo to have the statue shipped down from Naples on a vessel of the Order of the Knights of St.John.
The statue reached the Maltese shores on the 17th of September 1780, without any ornamentation or paint. Later on the painter J.Antonio Grech who was working at the Grand Masters Palace in San Anton at the time, took on the job of painting the statue while Mr. Galdes saw to the guilding of it.
The first time that this statue came out in public was in a procession held on the Sunday of the octave of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Valletta in 1882. The statue was blessed with great solemnity and was placed in the Carmelite oratory in the Basilica Sanctuary in Valletta for the public to see. It was later in 1890 when the Carmelites moved to Balluta, that the statue was given to them.
In 1896, four years after the priory was built, the first procession was held in honour of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Balluta. Today this statue is found in the Balluta parish church and this year it has celebrated its 120th anniversary since the first procession.
The parish Church of Balluta, which up to a few months ago was still at the Carmelite’s administration, also holds for me fond memories. As a young boy I used to be elated at the approach of the Feast of Our Lady of Balluta, for the following Sunday, the first week of August, we at San Gwann would be having our feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Furthermore, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel at Balluta brought a certain heavenly sweetness into my heart. Already the place, by the seaside, is really idyllic for such a feast. Imagine Tower Road, in Sliema, by the seaside, packed with the people and then having the statue of Our Lady going around and blessing all of us. Furthermore, it was so beautiful to see so many Carmelite friars participating in the procession with the statue of Our Lady. Finally, that beautiful Church full of light, space and joyous peace of the heart and soul really hammered in what Brother Laurence O.Carm said about God’s presence in his book The Practice of the Present of God when he writes: He does not ask much of us, merely a thought of Him from time to time, a little act of adoration, sometimes to ask for His grace, sometimes to offer Him your sufferings, at other times to thank Him for the graces, past and present, He has bestowed on you, in the midst of your troubles to take solace in Him as often as you can. Lift up your heart to Him during your meals and in company; the least little remembrance will always be the most pleasing to Him. One need not cry out very loudly; He is nearer to us than we think.
This great quotation by Brother Laurence O.Carm was of great help for me in my Franciscan Capuchin life, helping me discern more clearly my life as a Capuchin, flanked by good friends I still cherish from Carmel. Both in Malta and in Australia I had the grace of meeting these people of God who helped me mature in my vocation. All of them showed me the maternal presence of Mary in times of tribulation and the trust I had to have in her and Her Son and Our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Mercy Incarnate for you and me.
Moreover, through an ex-Carmelite student who now is in Heaven with the Lord and Our Lady of Carmel, the Lord helped my realize the priceless value of hidden suffering for God as a result of total fidelity with him. Here it came into my heart and mind what Pope Saint John Paul II wrote about the subject in his post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the consecrated life and its mission in the Church and in the world, Vita Consecrata. When treating the argument on the paschal dimension of the consecrated life he said:
This is the testimony given constantly and with deeply admirable courage by a great number of consecrated persons, many of whom live in difficult situations, even suffering persecution and martyrdom. Their fidelity to the one Love is revealed and confirmed in the humility of a hidden life, in the acceptance of sufferings for the sake of completing in their own flesh “what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Col 1:24), in silent sacrifice and abandonment to God’s holy will, and in serene fidelity even as their strength and personal authority wane. Fidelity to God also inspires devotion to neighbour, a devotion which consecrated persons live out not without sacrifice by constantly interceding for the needs of their brothers and sisters, generously serving the poor and the sick, sharing the hardships of others and participating in the concerns and trials of the Church (no.24).
In my theology classes I was blessed with the presence of four Carmelites students with whom I had the joy of being ordained a priest twenty-one years ago. Their presence, sharing and communion filled me with that joyous hope so evident in Our Lady as well as in her faithful disciples at Carmel.
Aided by such beautiful experiences from the Carmel I can make my own what Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), said about our Lady from the Carmel: Mary was born after the life of grace, having given all her heart and soul, to be the Mother of God. From this comes a close union between her and us, she loves us, guides us, and is ever willing to give us what we should be... The title of Mary as our mother is not merely symbolic. Mary is our mother in the most real and lofty sense, a sense which surpasses that of earthly maternity. She begot our life of grace for us because she offered up her entire being, body and soul, as the Mother of God. That is why an intimate bond exists between Mary & ourselves. She loves us, she knows us, she exerts herself to bring each one of us into the closest possible relationship with the Lord – that which we are above all supposed to be… Just as grace cannot achieve its work in souls unless they open themselves to it in free decision, so also Mary cannot function fully as a mother if people do not entrust themselves to her. How true it is that Mary can help us integrate her in our lives! The same saint writes about Mary: She herself can form in her own image those who belong to her.
With the great Carmelite mystic Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, let us present our humble prayer to Mary in her special feast day of Our Lady of Carmel:
Mother of God, tell me your mystery; of how your earthly life was spent: the way, right from the time of ‘Fiat – how you’d be buried in adoration, Mary! Say how – in a peace, a silence – you could enter into deeps that none but you could do – bearing the gift of God within. Secure in God’s embrace keep me I ask. In me his imprint may He place – For wholly love is he.